On the
right to drive, or typically referred to as the
right to travel:
As I went looking for the cites I've seen on the subject, I found that many of them are either misrepresented, misconstrued, cited incorrectly for the information the person citing it was attempting to convey, and I also found at least one purported SCOTUS citation that cannot be found with the names given on Findlaw, Justia or Cornell (LII). So you guys posting citations about the right to drive, or the right to be free from licensing etc., need to do some more homework. Most of the cites that I followed from posts on this forum were bogus for what they purported to demonstrate. I said "Most," not "all."
I am only addressing the "right" vs. "privilege" to drive on public roads and highways here. I am not addressing licensing, registration, toll roads, insurance mandates, "rules of the road" regulation or any other side-issue that might arise from finding a *right* to drive as a valid concept.
The right to travel goes back as far as the Magna Carta. A SCOTUS Opinion in
Kent v. Dulles states that thusly:
The right to travel is a part of the "liberty" of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. So much is conceded by the Solicitor General. In Anglo-Saxon law, that right was emerging at least as early as the Magna Carta. [
Footnote 12]
The Footnote is a working link to the Magna Carta cite which anyone can check for themselves.
The first line mentions the Fifth Amendment though, so obviously in 1958 SCOTUS was not ruling on common or ancient law. The right to travel is wrapped up in the Declaration of Independence mention of the right of all men to "...life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The right to travel is well-established
as a fundamental right of all human beings throughout this country's history, and while typically court rulings are concerning interstate and international travel, the right to travel has never been in question by any court, no matter the mode of travel. Driving a vehicle is a "mode" of travel.
Anyone asserting that driving is a privilege simply by virtue of it being a modern mode of travel would have to likewise say that the ownership of a revolver is a privilege by virtue of flintlocks being what the 2A was meant to protect. Conversely, anyone who asserts that revolvers, lever actions, bolt actions or semi-auto pistols and rifles are a natural progression from the flintlocks of the founding era days would have to likewise understand that motor-driven vehicles are a natural progression from the horse and buggy, and are every bit as much protected as a right to use as a conveyance to travel as modern weapons are in the right to keep and bear.
Before someone jumps to tell me I'm wrong because Kent was about a passport denial, save it. What I quoted is about
travel, described as a
right by SCOTUS, the denial of which was prohibited in the Opinion by the 5th Amendment. None of that paragraph is limited in scope to the particular case being heard. It was a general observation by the Court of a natural right going at least as far back in common law as the Magna Carta, used as the underlying foundation of its ruling in prohibiting the Secretary of State from denying a passport to a citizen on the basis of their political beliefs, and further underpinned that
natural right with the articulated protections under the 5th Amendment. The right to travel is not modified or otherwise made invalid by the details of issues being resolved in Kent. The
right to travel simply
is.
Another case, this time
Shachtman vs. Dulles (yes, the same Dulles - he obviously had hard time staying out of court). That Court found, among other things:
[5] .....The right to travel, to go from place to place as the means of transportation permit, is a natural right subject to the rights of others and to reasonable regulation under law. A restraint imposed by the Government of the United States upon this liberty, therefore, must conform with the provision of the Fifth Amendment that "No person shall be * * * deprived of * * * liberty * * * without due process of law".
(Emphasis added)
There is no basis under which someone could claim now that the courts have held that travel is anything approaching a "privilege," no matter the mode of travel as the phrase, "
as the means of transportation permit" proves, unless of course you have cites to rulings or opinions that supersede or otherwise overrule just these two that I have provided. There are others too, BTW.
One can argue the legalities of, constitutionality of, or prudence of DUI checkpoints in light of the "reasonable regulation under law" mentioned above, but to assert the act of driving as allowable or not allowable by government because of its
legal status as nothing more than a "privilege" is legal illiteracy at best, and brain-dead belief in indoctrination that teaches otherwise well-meaning men and women that they have the
authority to trample on any
rights of The People at worst. All too often, it is the
worst choice that is the case.
So even though I found many cites that are unreliable for one reason or another, on the question of driving being a privilege rather than a right, I'm gonna stick with what I said before. Andey, you're so full of crap. And if you contend that you're not, then show us your arsenal of flintlocks to prove that modern modes of exercising your rights are not allowed because the Framers never contemplated them ever existing.
And one last thing - Do your own research. If you spew a bunch of crap from your "How To Be an Effective Jack Booted Thug" textbook, or some other policy manual, or anything that doesn't show you seeking and finding the cites you're relying on and giving your own understanding in your own words about what they mean, it will be obvious. It will also be dismissed as nothing more than further evidence of your complete indoctrination opposing the rights that citizens of this country possess over and above your legal authority to trample upon them.
Blues